A Christmas miracle
by Kristenschaalisahorse
Summary: "I found her near the Christmas trees." he said, smiling. "She was looking at a tree display, before she realized she was alone."


**Notes: **A prompt from imagineyourotp, with the Christmas-like aspect added because I wanted to write Christmas fic. Hope you like it!

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><p>Shopping was already difficult enough, but Vriska found that it was even more difficult with the fact that the shop was more crowded than usual because of the upcoming Christmas holiday. This meant that her two-year-old wasn't paying much attention to where her mother was leading her and the cart through the busy crowds, but more to the large, lit holiday tree displays and strings of lights that were hung about to try to encourage shoppers to purchase them. But Vriska was distracted, as well; she was thinking about the list she had, and the small budget she had to stick by for her and her daughter for food and small presents. The holidays were especially a tough time for them, since Vriska had to support herself and her two-year-old, who had grown up without her dad around. In fact, her dad had never even met her; he was gone before the first doctor's appointment confirming her existence.<p>

The evening that Vriska had mentioned to him that she might be pregnant, Eridan had completely flipped out and stormed out of the apartment without looking back, so it was a bit of a surprise when he came back a while later while she was crying on the bed. But it was short lived, since he had only come back to ultimately start a screaming fight between the two. Eridan had stomped into the room and immediately started screaming that this whole thing was her fault and she had to 'take care of it' before it got out of hand. At this, Vriska had accused him that he was being the same worthless shithead that he usually was, and that she didn't want him around anyway if he didn't even want to know the baby. He had left less than an hour later after this with a small suitcase of his most personal belongings.

From that night on, now coming up on three years ago, she had only talked to him twice on the phone.

She sighed and broke herself out of her thoughts and looked down besides herself, ready to grasp her daughter's small, gloved hand and tell her that they were nearly done here and can go home soon, when to her horror, the small, almost identical clone of herself was not there. Panic quickly began setting in as she looked in every direction, trying to spot the small girl with the blue hat in the store. She mentally slapped herself for zoning out and losing sight of her daughter, and suddenly she felt tears prick the backs of her eyes. Everything in the past two years had gone wrong since losing her child's father, and she didn't know what she'd do if she'd lost her daughter on top of it all. Right there in the canned fruits isle of the store, the tears began to fall, and she made no attempt to hide her current shame, fear, and stress.

That was, until a tall man in a white shirt with rectangle glasses and a goofy grin walked up to her, amazingly with the light of her life in his arms.

"Mama!"

Vriska looked up past her tears at this to see the tiny girl who resembled her so much reaching out for her, with her special teddy bear still securely clutched in one hand. Vriska immediately stopped crying and gasped. She sniffed and immediately held out her arms, and the mysterious man who was holding her put the child in her mother's arms, reuniting the two. Vriska hugged her daughter tightly to her and looked up at the man, shock still evident on her tear-streaked face.

"I found her near the Christmas trees." he said, smiling. "She was looking at a tree display, before she realized she was alone. She turned to me and started crying, so I scooped her up and we started looking for you. I think it's safe to say we found you, now."

"O-oh my God, I can't thank you enough for bringing her back. S-she's my everything, and I really don't know what I'd do if I lost her." Vriska said, before wiping her tears away with one sleeve.

The man smiled. "I know the feeling. I have one of my own, and she's my world, too. I think I'd be lost without her. My name's John, by the way." he said, extending one hand. She took it gratefully, shaking it.

"I'm Vriska. And the little one you rescued is Hope."

"Those are both really beautiful names. They fit you both perfectly."

Vriska blushed a bit, smiling. "Well, like I said, I can't thank you enough, John."

He waved his hand in dismissal. "It's nothing. I'm glad I could help."

The two stared a moment at each other, smiling, until Vriska broke the eye contact.

"Uh, I should probably finish this shopping now. Gotta get this one home and fed." she said, nodding her head at the child fittingly named Hope, who now had her head resting on Vriska's shoulder with her thumb in her mouth, evidently tired from her running away adventure.

"Can I help you finish up, so you don't disturb this one?" he said, his turn to nod at the kid.

"Well, I think we're practically done, I just need to-"

"Please, I insist. It looks like you could use it."

She thought a moment, and while she was still thinking, Hope yawned and closed her eyes, and that decided it for her. Vriska nodded at John, who grinned.

They shopped and they chatted, getting to know each other through the different sections of the store as the child napped. Near the toy section, Vriska opened up and started telling John her woes about Hope's father, the story behind the child's name, and many other things that probably wouldn't have been talked about until much later in a relationship. John listened sympathetically to her, and between her stories, talked about his own woes and his child's mother, and how he was a single father himself. He talked about his daughter like Vriska talked about Hope, and she could tell that she was the light of his life.

It had nearly been two hours by the time Vriska finally said she should really go, and by that time, it seemed like the two of them had been friends for their whole lives, instead of two strangers just meeting. John went along with her as she went to pay for her items, offering to hold the still-sleeping child as she did. Though they had talked and shopped for nearly two hours, the amount of various food and small gift items for the kid in his arms was no where close to where they should have been, he noted. John didn't ask, out of respect, and because she had slightly hinted at her money troubles, but as he watched her put her items on the counter, a thought creeped into his head. He didn't ask it right away, and kept his mouth shut as he watched her dig the right amount out of her wallet, an almost painful expression crossing her face as she handed the bill to the cashier. This small gesture made John ultimately decide that if they were going to become friends, he would ask her the question that had been rattling in his head since he had brought her Hope back.

When she was finished, they swapped jobs- John gave her the sleeping child so he could carry her few bags out to the car. At first she had refused, saying that he had been more helpful to her than she deserved, but then had changed her mind when he insisted again, and had taken her child back as he grabbed the bags.

"You really don't have to do all this, John." she whispered, leading him to where the old car was parked under a bare tree. Snow had began to fall outside, and had made the decorated town look like it was covered in big, white blankets.

"I want to, seriously. It's no problem. I'm kind of in the same situation, and you're supposed to help your neighbors, so really, please let me and don't feel bad about it." he said, as he started loading the bags into her trunk.

She closed her eyes and silently thanked him in her head, and then she started loading the still-sleeping kid into her carseat, covering her with an extra blanket against the cold. Hopefully she would stay asleep for another little while, and she could take some time when she got home to think about today.

As she stood and closed the car door, John stood and slammed the trunk closed. He smiled at her as their eyes met.

Vriska walked around behind the car to where he was still standing. "Please, let me give you a little something for all you've done for me today." she said, already reaching for her wallet.

John shook his head and held one hand up. "I won't take anything you offer."

"You saved my daughter and helped me with my shopping today. I have to do something to show my thanks."

"You already did." John said. "Besides my daughter's baby-sitter, who's my best friend, I really have no one else to talk to. You gave me the opportunity of talking to someone who only has a small vocabulary, or who's like talking to a wall. It was fun, and I had a great time meeting you." he looked down and kicked a small rock in the street. "And I was, uh, wondering if you'd maybe like to do it again?"

He looked back at her, a little color in his cheeks, as he smiled sheepishly at her. She smiled back, and nodded.

"I'd like that, John."

He smiled, a big goofy grin. "Maybe the kids can play together, too. They might like meeting each other. Yours is exactly like mine. I bet they'd be best friends."

"I bet she'd really like that. She doesn't really have anyone to play with around the apartment. What did you say your daughter's name was again?"

"Her name is Casey." John said proudly, before frowning a little. "She's named after her...mother."

"It's such a pretty name. I'm sure she's beautiful."

He brightened up again. "She's her mother's clone, exactly. Just as Hope is your clone. She's really quite adorable."

"She has her moments. I'm just really glad she doesn't resemble her father that much. He really was a douche."

"That's sad to hear, but you seem to be doing amazingly by yourself with her."

Vriska smiled and blushed. "I think we're doing pretty good, yeah."

John returned the smile, before looking at his feet again. He sighed, and met her gaze once more.

"Well, it was really nice meeting you, Vriska."

"The same to you, John. Thanks again so much again for bringing her back. I...I really don't know what I'd do if she was lost."

"It's no problem."

"So, what does the rest of your week look like, John? Can we do this again really soon?"

"I've got nothing, really. That sounds like a plan to me."

"Great. Uhm, give me your phone and I can give you my number."

He reached into his pocket and pulled his phone out, handing it to her. She made a new contact and added her name and number. In less than a minute, she handed John his phone back.

"Cool, I'm-"

Before he could finish, she had leaned in and hugged him, wrapping her arms tightly around him. After a moment, he did the same thing, hugging her back tighter and resting his chin on her head. They stayed this way for almost a minute, before she pulled away and sighed.

"Sorry, I haven't had a good, proper hug in forever, and today was just so emotional and I just- oh, God, I'm sorry, it's so hard being a single mom sometimes."

He leaned in and hugged her again. "Ssh, ssh, Vriska, it's okay."

"I think that you finding her was supposed to happen. It's like, it was meant to be, I think. Us meeting was no random event, John."

"I feel the same way, to be honest. Things might be finally looking up, for both of us." John said.

"I think so, too." she said, pulling away again and smiling up at him through tearful blue eyes. John smiled down and wiped away her tears with his thumbs as they fell, and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"Be careful driving home, okay? I'll see you very soon, Vriska." he said, smiling. She nodded, smiling back at him.

They broke away at last. John watched as she got into her car and started it, and then drove away until she turned the corner and was out of sight, towards her and her daughter's tiny shared apartment. He stood there another five minutes, snow gathering in his hair and his breath becoming dragon's puffs as evening came.

Finally, he brushed the snow from his hair and got into his own car, unable to bear the cold air much longer, and drove away the opposite way through the flurries, towards his own daughter and apartment. Today had been a long day and he couldn't wait to get home to hug her. Her baby-sitter probably couldn't wait for John to get home either so he could get paid.

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><p>A week later, John and Vriska were seeing each other nearly every day. Hope and Casey had quickly become best friends, as John had predicted, and contently played together on a blanket with toys as the adults chatted in the kitchen over coffee.<p>

Two weeks later, John and Casey had surprised Vriska and Hope on the snowy Christmas morning, bringing small presents for them, plus an offer that the two could not refuse: moving into their apartment with them. Vriska had tearfully accepted his gracious offer, and by New Years eve, the four of them lived together in the cramped, but livable apartment.

After the holidays had come and they had settled nicely into their new lives, both John and Vriska having found much better jobs than the ones they had before, John had popped the million-dollar question to Vriska, and again, she had tearfully accepted. The two girls, dressed in identical dresses, were the flower girls at the small ceremony five months later in May.

Life for them was definitely looking up, and all because of that wonderful Christmas miracle that happened in the shop in December.


End file.
